Metro Exodus: United
by jimmie.toyne
Summary: This is the story of Metro Exodus, but with more people joining the Spartans on their quest from Moscow, including (but not limited to) Khan, Pavel and the still breathing cast of 2034. contains both really happy and really dark scenes, Spoilers for the Novels and Games and Artyom (just like in 2035) swears ALOT.
1. Chapter 1

Artyom crawled slowly through the vent, who were these people? Why did they need to kill people from the outside? What was going on? More questions mounted on as he climbed down from the pipe into a room through a hole in the pipe. He finally took off the gas mask he had freshly taken from a dead man. He stood up, still slightly winded and made his way towards the door which had several watchmen bodies lay scattered in front of. Opening the slightly ajar door he was immediately grappled by a large mountain of a man, Artyom resistied befor a light was turned on and revealed who it was, Both men recoiled back in shock.

"Hunter!?" Artyom exclaimed, surprised at seeing his sudo-second father after he went missing so long ago.

"Artyom?!" Hunter was also surprised to find his former pupil here of all places. He managed to squeeze Artyom's whereabouts during the last conversation with Millier but the Colonel had been very vague. Before either of them could react another voice joined in.

"Ah, so today is the day." Khan stepped out of the shadows, Artyom's confusion only mounted as 4 more figures joined in, only two of them he recognized.

"Hello Pavel and, Bourbon, it seems the rumors were true." Artyom slowly conveyed.

Artyom had watched Bourbon get riddled with bullets before his very eyes and still swore to this day he'd felt nothing when he checked Bourbon for vitals. He'd previously dismissed the rumors that Bourbon was alive, the living proof otherwise standing before him was just another pleasant surprise from this day and its increasing level of confusing events.

He'd truly looked up to Hunter as a boy and owed the man a lot, he was the best shot from his home station thanks to the man. Hunter also was Artyom's mentor for sneaking around.

It had been two years since the last time Artyom had seen Hunter, those years had been Cruel, the entire left side of Hunter's face had a horrific scar, looking like someone had both burned and carved at it. A visor-less gas mask dangled around his neck. Still, his physical appetence outside of his wound was unchanged. Hunter still towered over everyone else and his lack of Armor only seemed to promote his Muscular bear like frame even more.

Artyom hadn't been with Bourbon for very long, and the man had a habit of raising several different questions regarding his background rather frequently during that small window of time. But in the 'end' (or so Artyom had thought) Bourbon proved to have a good heart and decent nature.

**Burbon didn't look too different, though he had a considerable sense of fatigue on him, but it didn't seem to be anything a few days of rest and a shot or two of Vodka couldn't fix.**

Pavel also had said exhausted look in his eye, on Pavel it looked like he just taken three thriple sifts of guard duty. Artyom's feeling of relif at seeing Pavel was confusing to him, sure he'd decided to spare his "friend" in the end but he'd rarely saw Pavel after the incident, that, he'd heard rumors about Pavel becoming a non person a few months ago, now he knew why.

That only left the next question. "Who are you two?" he asked the old man and young girl that were there and looking equally confused as Artyom was.

The old man spoke first "my name is Nikolai Ivanovich Nikolayev, but everyone calls me Homer." he was obviously a survivor of the war grey balding hair on him and three white scars on the left side of his rounded forehead, however any sense of danger that may have given was lost thanks to his bushy eyebrows and friendly demeanor.

"I'm Aleksandra Petrovna, call me Sasha." the young girl had short but uneven hair, her hair was white, a surprising feature for someone who beyond a shadow of a doubt was under 18, her face was only rivaled by Anne's in terms of beauty, this line of thought brought Artyom back to his quest.

"Okay….uuhhhhhh. Fuck!" Artyom swore at trying to find a way to explain his situation.

Luckily for Artyom. Khan's ability to practically read minds was put to good use and benefited him (for once) "Artyom, someone's been taken, is that right?" Khan Inquired.

"Yes."

"By the people who run this facility?"

"Yep."

"You want our help?"

"No shit."

"Okay."

(Authors note)

**Disclaimer: all characters are the property of Dimitry Glukhovsky **

**Update, realized that I missed certain details about our cast while re reading a bit of 2035. Fixed it now**


	2. Chapter 2

Khan looked at the others, no objections, luck was on Artyom's side. Khan led Artyom and the others down the corridor where the voice of a guard came through.

"Damn Watchmen, broke through, most of the workers are done for."

Another shot back. "Think that they even got Hunter?" with a hint of curiosity.

His suggestion was quickly shot down. "Bullshit, Hunter is just playing us…. Again."

Artyom and the others climbed up and began to make their way through the small passage. The Loudspeakers came on shortly after an alarm and the whole complex started to shake. "Attention, the turntable is in operation." the whole group was made insignificant to the massive behemoth of a train.

"What is that?" Artyom asked out loud.

To his surprise Homer was the one to give an unexpected answer. "That my boy, is a P38. Largest and heaviest steam engine ever made by either the Soviet Union or Russia."

"They've had us do repairs and add Armor to it" Pavel added.

"How do you know that gandpa?" Artyom inquired.

"I used to work in the Metro, had to take a test on all trains and how to operate them. To get a promotion, passed the test and got the promotion the very day the bombs dropped."

"Wait, you could drive that monster?" Artyom pried further.

"Yes, I've told the staff but they have special orders from that bastard, its like he knows how much pain it is to be so close to conducting a train yet it being just out of reach."

"Tough luck, but if it isn't you then who does drive that thing?"

"Another old soul, don't know who though, never got the opportunity to ask, or even get remotely close, we are on a special punishment list. We can't talk, sleep or even work near the others."

Before Artyom could inquire further, a cry rang through the facility. "Captain! Just let me go! Will you kill her, too, just like the rest? How can you!"

The 'captain' replied "cut it out, Yermak! You know the rules."

"Rules? What Rules!? You're just shooting people like dogs! You.." before 'Yermak' could finish his sentence a muffled grunt signified that he'd just been hit. The Captain continued

"Put him in a cell, he needs time to cool his head."

Artyom and the others decided to move on in the only possible direction. By some divine intervention the only exit to the labyrinth happened to be the 'cell' they had put Yermak in. Artyom choose to open the hatch very slowly, Yermak Panicked, thinking Artyom was a mutant but Artyom with some quick hand motions managed to stop him before he brought the wooden board he'd picked up down on Artyom's head. Yermak recognized Artyom as "the one she's been screaming about.' Artyom got out and made room for the others.

"Your the people their real stingy about!" Yermak noted before turning to Homer

"Don't I know you?" both men said Simultaneously.

"Quiet Likely, as both of you can drive the train, old working colleagues probably" Khan pointed out.

"You can drive a train?" Yermak asked Homer.

"Yes, potentially I could do it all by myself." Homer answered.

"Oh thank heavens, you have no idea how exhausting it is to do it all by myself, I love my old gal but driving around it without any assistance is just backbreaking." Yermak exclaimed.

**Hunter opened the door "got to go grab something, meet you at the train." and without another word, he closed the door behind him leaving the others in the room alone. **

****"well, lets do it, no point in standing around here" Yermak declared. opening the door letting the others out first befor waiting a few moments and ushering for Artyom to Follow. ******Artyom managed to snatch two more medkits off the table befor leaving.**


	3. Chapter 3

Yermak emerged and distracted the guards while Artyom snuck around, the desire to slit someone's throat growing as he heard the guards continue to taunt his wife and how the commander was going to "have fun" with her.

Artyom was no stranger to sneaking around even if he had full gear on he could still make minimum noise, climbing up a ladder Yermak managed to keep up with him. Yermak led Artyom to the ventilation shaft saying it would take him the rest of the way.

"Good luck to you" the old man uttered under his breath. Artyom crawled forward, with added haste once he heard her voice, Anne. The bastard was insulting her. Getting out of the vent he continued to hear the screaming match.

"There's nobody left for you!' the Commander bolstered.

"What about our home? Exhibition!?"

"VDNKh was wiped out by "mutant attack" four hours ago."

"What?! How do yo-" Anne's question was cut off by realization, it had been destroyed by this mysterious group, knowing their handiwork they had killed everyone. Friends, the one family member Artyom had. Artyom, couldn't let this continue, he mentally prepared himself for a moment, then he went into action. Even a brick wall couldn't have stopped him.

(Authors note)

**Hi! decided I'm going to make some important notes.**

**I said the Aurora is a heavily modified P38. In reality we don't know what type of train the Aurora actually is it has a P38 suspension but most of the rest of the train is more like an early JS series locomotive. Personally I think It was built with parts from multiple types of trains after the war. We still have one more character joining his fellow Spartans, I won't say who I let cheat death, but just a small heads up/teaser. **

**The next chapter will be a prototype to how the rest of this story will be in terms of jumping between multiple POV's.**

**I also enjoy feedback.**


	4. Chapter 4

Anne was out of breath, she was trying to not start having an emotional breakdown, he was dead, Artyom, her love was dead, when he got shot she'd screamed out loud for the first time in years. Now she wished she had joined him in that pit. She'd wanted kids, so many times she'd dreamed of having a little boy, a boy with his hair, now she'd never get to have any children. Sure, the Relationship between her and Artyom had its rough moments, they'd sworn at each other, some moments got so bad that they couldn't even be in the same station, but nobody else in the whole Metro could replace him. Anne's perception dropped in and out of reality and arguing with the "commander". Lost in trying to remember as much as she could about him, his soft soul, soothing voice and…

The door at the back of the room opened with so much force it may as well have been blown off its hinges by a grenade. Artyom burst into the room. "Who the fuck are you!" the commander shouted, before Artyom tackled him, he tried to resist but quickly learned that a hand to hand fight against an ex-ranger is something you don't win.

Anne had shot out of her chair the moment she recognised the large brute that had nearly kicked down the door, it was him. He's Alive! It's a miracle! Anne stumbled over to him and they embraced, with her face buried in his chest she noticed something. "Hunters Badge….. It stopped the bullet!"

Artyom then realized he'd failed to give back the trinket to Hunter earlier "I'll have to thank him later." he unknowingly said aloud.

Anne's face suddenly sported a confused look "what?" was all she managed to ask before she got knocked on the ground, during their little moment, the Commander had got up and just hit Anne with his office chair.

Artyom had no time to comprehend what just happened as he fought the commander for control of the AK, their struggle caused the weapon to go off into the large amount of electronic equipment in the room. Anne gave the commander a glancing blow from the stock of another AK that she'd just picked up, it wasn't hard but it was enough for Artyom to shake the man off. Now the Commander was staring down the barrels of two Kalashnikovs. Artyom's blood boiled, the only thing stopping him from turning this pig of a man into swiss cheese was a desire for answers.

Meanwhile on the other side of the facility Hunter scanned the surroundings with his one good eye, his gasmask lacked any visor giving him a permanent squint. He twirled the throwing knife in his hand. No guards now, his target was clear. He bolted across the courtyard, silently opening another door, he found only one officer inside, just the person he needed.

"Hello Makarov, remember me?"

Markov's face went white, in a flash Hunter had pinned him to the ground with the knife mere inches from his face, the fear in his eyes was plain as day, the knife inched closer and closer until it made contact. Slowly, the utter fear was replaced by nothing as the life drained from Makarov. Hunter didn't stick around leaving Makarov to bleed out, he now looked at the storage in front of him, he grabbed a duffle bag, he only needed a few minutes.

The Commander darted left as he went for the pistol in his holster, he was going to make sure Anne didn't have a clear shot before he could get it out. But Artyom was faster than the Commander had anticipated. Artyom slammed him into the control board before kicking one of his legs. The audible Crack was followed by a scream of pain, Artyom put the pistol in his mouth. Not deterred by the weapon the commander tried to claw at Artyom's throat.

He pulled the trigger, a muffled thunder strike went off as the Commander's brains splattered all over the room. He was dead, as dead as Moscow had thought the rest of the world was.

The door opened, with Yermak holding a collection of Items in his hands.

"Who are you?" Anne aggressively questioned him while pointing her gun at him.

"Don't shoot! We're with him, with you!"

"We?"

**Disclaimer: all characters are the property of Dimitry Glukhovsky **


	5. Chapter 5

Following close behind the others were crammed in the doorway. Anne had never meet any, save for Khan who often decided to occasionally swing by every once in a while, Anne had also meet Pavel once. He'd tried to charm her but that ended miserably. "Who are these people, Artyom?" she turned to him for answers.

Artyom cleared his throat. "Anne meet Bourbon, Homer and Sasha" he introduced the three to Anne.

"Is this yours, they just left it sitting there" Yermak handed Artyom a suppressed revolver and a Knife, Artyom inspected it closely, "the knife is mine, well it's actually his." Artyom made a gesture over to Pavel.

Pavel waved him off "ah, keep it Tovarish, You've held onto it longer."

Artyom then reached out for the Crossbow that was also in Yermack hands but someone else snatched it.

"That's mine Artyom" Kahn said calmly as he pulled on the stock of the weapon, which was connected to the string and thus armed the crossbow. Khan was used to having a Pneumatic one but a Crossbow like this still had a sense of familiarity from long, long ago.

Artyom sighed, but pushed his annoyance aside to pay attention to Yermak "you'll have to get across the courtyard, to get to the hanger, I'll be waiting there, they know me so I'll get their easily."

"I'll go with Yermak, my filter is empty and I'll one less person to slow you five down" Homer added on.

"Why are you helping us Andrey?" Anne voiced her suspicion.

"I had-" Yermak started before cutting himself off at the sound of voices coming from behind them. "I'll tell you later, I hope" Yermak warily concluded as he opened the door letting everyone else out.

On the other side of the Base Hunter finished packing everything into the bag. He'd just taken everything that belonged to Himself, Homer and Sasha. Along with their stuff he'd Grabbed a plethora of weapons, modifiers and ammunition for the trip, Everything from and VSS to Dragonsbreath shotgun shells, he was just about to leave but something caught his eyes. He opened one partially opened crate and a small smile broke on his face, just one more minute.

**Disclaimer: all characters are the property of Dimitry Glukhovsky **

**so hunter is now my way to install the 'My Weapons" New Game+ feature to the story and bring back some other weapons from Last Light (the Lowlife, side-side Duplet and VSS among other things). I'm honestly slightly Bummed that Dragonsbreath shotgun shells and APC/Incendiary 44 magnum rounds haven't (yet, still holding on to some hope) made a return. the Tihar ammo Mechanic would work perfectly for them to. ah well. **


	6. Chapter 6

Homer could only grimince at the situation he and Yermak found themselves in, the guards had caught them, what had he really expected? Now both of them had been chained up and where being questioned, well, Yermak was being questioned. Homer was being interrogated. The train was a stone throw away, already set to go. Homer mentally sighed 'so close yet so far'.

Artyom and the others had now entered the main hanger, moving along slowly he stopped as his headset called to life "Artyom they got Homer and Yermak!" Anne could see him clear from her position in the scaffolding. Artyom silently dispatched the Guard nearby, Bourbon held him back before he could move.

"I got this one" he briefly stood up, giving himself enough time to throw a knife, killing the sentry.

Artyom moved forward and began crawling into a large piece of a vent. That's when all hell broke loose.

The Door was kicked down and a large figure armored figure armed with a Gatling gun, without a word he opened up on the Guards, mowing them down without mercy. Artyom saw a lone red dot stop on the man's chest, he quickly called over his radio "No Anne! He's with us! Don't shoot!" the Dot hovered for a second, Artyom's heart skipped a beat, then the dot disappeared. Artyom breathed a sigh of relief before aiming his own Kaleshnikov at a Guard.

Anne was questioning her Husband's request, but he was shooting Guards and not them so it now made a little more sense to her. As she ended the life of another human far more

Callously than most could, she started trying to guess who their new 'friend' was.

"Bastards." Hunter muttered under his breath as he removed his mask. "You still alive Homer?" he hollered as he opened the barred door that separates the two sides of the hanger.

"Hunter?!" a familiar female voice exclaimed in surprise. Hunter turned around to face Anne, she looked like she was seeing a ghost, which would make sense since most of the order, except his old Comrade Miller, thought he was dead.

Anne slowly stumbled forward still in shock, Hunter turned to face her and she jerked back at the sight of his burnt left side, what could have done that?

"The Control center is up there you'll need to access it to turn on the turntable." Yermak shouted but his words fell on deaf ears for Anne.

"You didn't check in" she stuttered.

"I needed to be alone." Hunter coldly responded.

"My father-" Anne started but was cut off.

"He knows I'm alive, although it was maybe three or four months ago." this revelation shocked both Anne and Artyom.

"He knows?" Artyom asked.

"Yes, why?" It was Hunter's turn to ask the question.

"Because he didn't tell us! And we saw him last week!" Anne exclaimed.

"Uh, ladies, if you could please give your Uncle Bourbon a hand here." Bourbon fired a burst from his AK at the top of the stairs leading to the Control room were more Guards trying to stop them were coming out of.

**Disclaimer: all characters are the property of Dimitry Glukhovsky **

**so sorry for the long wait, but I will publish more frequently, I promise. **


	7. Chapter 7

**A quick chapter just to keep the story going, still own nothing**

"Sasha, follow me, one one thousand, two one thousand, three one thousand four." Homer counted before shoveling coal onto the freshly light fire, he handed over the shovel to her. "Now you try." Sasha followed his instructions to the letter, Homer turned to the door and slung the Kalashnikov off of his shoulder and prepared for the event the train would be boarded.

Bullets whizzed by over Artyom's head as they advanced, Pavel snatched the shotgun from a guard and blasted three of them in quick succession, Artyom let off a burst of his AK to cover Hunter's advance, the guards were quickly overwhelmed, Artoym started the turntable, but more guards quickly entered the area, Artyom ducked behind the control panel for cover, gas was streaming out of damaged barrels, sirens going off, gunfire erupted in violent bursts, it was pure chaos.  
Homer watched the entrance to the train, the door opened, and in came a guard. Homer fired his AK the force of the shot sending the guard flying of the train. "Are we in position yet!" Homer shouted over the ruckus, Yermak's answer was drowned out by thundurus noise.

Explosions riddled the structure the guards had previously been using as cover, barrels went flying, the control center started to collapse. Artyom grabbed onto Anne. "Don't let go Artyom!" she cried, however Artyom was slipping and the two were both sent plummeting to the floor. Fortunately, this was not some bottomless cavern out of the movies, the Order training exercises had had them fall farther distances (though not by much). "That was intense" Anne exclaimed.


End file.
